Lobbyist known as 'The Chief' gets laughs - and respect - at Statehouse

Wednesday

Nov 13, 2013 at 12:01 AMNov 13, 2013 at 11:50 AM

An hour into the interview - it was more like a comedic monologue - "The Chief" took the Cusano 18 from his mouth, beheld the smoke alighting from the 7-inch cigar, and begged for just another minute. "One more story," John C. Mahaney Jr. said, Irish eyes crinkling. "I could tell you 10,000 stories. But this is the last one and then I'll let you go."

Joe Hallett, The Columbus Dispatch

An hour into the interview - it was more like a comedic monologue - "The Chief" took the Cusano 18 from his mouth, beheld the smoke alighting from the 7-inch cigar, and begged for just another minute.

"One more story," he said, Irish eyes crinkling. "I could tell you 10,000 stories. But this is the last one and then I'll let you go."

John C. Mahaney Jr. already had told 10,000 stories, but off he went on another one, this time a tale about a Dayton Daily News reporter who years back led a story thusly, or at least this is how the Chief recollected it: "Were it not for his ever-present odoriferous cigar, John C. Mahaney Jr. would resemble a well-dressed bowling ball."

The eyes crinkled and Mahaney filled his 20th floor office in the LeVeque Tower with laughter.

Universally known on Capitol Square as the Chief, Mahaney stepped down yesterday as president and CEO of the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants, which he has led since 1970 after joining the venerable trade association in 1958 when Dwight Eisenhower was president.

At 81 and feeling well after getting a couple of heart stents in 2011, Mahaney is a veritable Vesuvius of stories wrought from his 55 years skulking the Statehouse corridors - befriending, cajoling, irritating and advising Ohio's last seven governors and countless legislative leaders.

Easily the dean of Statehouse lobbyists and only the third president in the Retail Merchants' 91-year history, Mahaney gave way to Gordon M. Gough, 36, the executive vice president and chief financial officer he groomed as a successor.

Gough's photograph is among 33 framed on a credenza next to Mahaney's desk, men and women the Chief hired, mentored and launched toward bigger careers, personifications of success he considers his greatest legacy.

"He has a knack for providing an atmosphere for young talent to be successful," Gough said, adding that "the Chief has been a mentor and like a second father to me."

Former Ohio House Speaker Jo Ann Davidson describes Mahaney, whom she has known for 40 years, as a Statehouse legend.

"There are very few people in my experience who could walk into a hearing room and create a buzz - it must be important if the Chief is here," she said. "He's got a big personality, and it serves him well."

Mahaney said the 4,500-member Retail Merchants has remained a force on Capitol Square for three reasons: "We tell the truth, we keep our commitments, and we're loyal. That will take you a long way."

The Chief's way to Columbus started from childhood in Zanesville and wended through a Catholic education, including an English degree from Niagara University, a stint in the Army, and newspaper reporting jobs in Zanesville and Piqua. After taking a job with a Columbus radio station, he found himself running the 1958 statewide campaign to pass a right-to-work initiative, which was vehemently opposed by organized labor and Democrats.

It was "one of most-disastrous defeats in Ohio history," Mahaney said, but his efforts caught the eye of George Koch, then associate director of the Retail Merchants, who hired him. Koch, who went on to become president of the Grocery Manufacturers of America, was awarded the Retail Merchants' Distinguished Service Award yesterday.

A year after becoming president, Mahaney again found himself in the eye of controversy when the Retail Merchants endorsed a new state income tax proposed in 1971 by Democratic Gov. John J. Gilligan.

"We needed the income tax so the council backed it and I was the front guy. It was a horrible experience. I had at least two (Republican) state senators who wanted to take a swing at me."

Meanwhile, the Chief had become close to former Gov. James A. Rhodes - "my hero" - who was plotting a comeback and had worked behind the scenes to support the income tax.

"Rhodes was smart as hell," Mahaney said. "He knew several things: One, the state needed the money; two, if Gilligan did it, he would be blamed for it; three, that would make it easier for him to beat Gilligan and spend the money when he came back."

The Chief waged public battles against Republican Gov. George V. Voinovich, who had sought to prohibit retailers from keeping 1.5 percent of the state sales tax they collected and who had proposed a 5-cent deposit on cans and bottles.

It got so heated, Mahaney said, that he felt "Voinovich was the one governor who didn't like me." They ended up friends.

"I don't have time for grudges," Mahaney said.

Voinovich, who calls Mahaney "John Cigar," said, "John was a straight-shooter. He did his job and never lied. If he had some ulterior motive, he laid it on the table so you knew exactly where he was coming from."

Although he has stepped down as president, the Chief is keeping his office and, as vice chairman, will do what he can to help the organization he has served for more than a half-century.

"I can sit in here, use this black book and a telephone and do a hell of a lot without getting out of this chair, because I know so many people favorably," he said.